Quest for Change
by LiquidVamp
Summary: [Hermione x Draco] Complete! Part 7 in the Severus Snape Saga. The time comes for Harry and company to go on a Horcrux hunt. Dark artifacts aren't the only things they find along the way. Friendships blossom and a dark truth comes to light. Severitus


**Living with My Misgivings**

**Part 7 of The Severus Snape Saga**

_**A/N: **My muse, Maggie, is simple girl. All she likes are plot bunnies and reviews. So be kind to Maggie and feed her review cookies please._

**_Big thanks to my beta Lbandoly for her hard work. She has spent countless hours editing and providing plot help for my stories. She makes my writing possible. _**

_No copyright infringement intended. All characters are the property of JKR, Scholastic, and any number of other companies with more money than I've ever dreamed of seeing. I didn't make any money off of this, so please don't sue._

**HP SS DM HG HP SS DM HG HP SS DM HG**

Harry stood in the doorway silently watching the scene play out in front of him. Hermione and Draco were in the same room on the same couch sitting peacefully without killing one another. He knew it was possible but the sight of it was bloody amazing.

She was sitting cross-legged on the old couch. Her tank top clung to her frame and the muggle jean shorts riding up her thighs just far enough to catch her seatmate's attention. Draco looked like a polar opposite in his usual grey slacks and oxford sitting next to her as if nothing had ever been any different.

She had charmed something she called an iPod that played muggle music in a way similar to his cousin's walkman had but without the CD. She was sitting with a dusty tome in her lap, iPod on, with the ear buds tucked in her ears. Her lips were moving as she read or was it the lyrics of the music she was listening to that she was silently saying? He wasn't sure. Her head bobbed in rhythm to the beat of the song she was listening to. Her small hand clutched in Draco's resting on the seat between them.

Remus walked up behind him and looked in the room before walking past with a grin on his face. Harry smiled one last time at his best friend and Draco before he followed the now graying man down into the basement kitchen of number 12 Grimwald Place.

"Hello Harry."

Harry smiled as he pulled a pitcher of pumpkin juice from the cold charmed cabinet. "Hi Moony."

"Couldn't resist watching them could you?"

Harry shook his head no as he poured himself a glass then silently offered Remus one.

"Yes please."

Harry poured a second glass and passed it to Remus before storing the jug back in the cold storage area. "They've been doing that every day since I started moving around."

Remus quickly swallowed the mouth full of juice before replying. "No they've been doing this since the day you took the potion. I'm fairly certain their heart to heart in the hall is to thank for their newly developed closeness."

Harry smiled sadly. "At least something good came out of me taking it then."

"What do you mean by that Harry?"

"It's nothing."

"Clearly it's not or you would never have made a statement like that. What did you mean?"

"It's nothing really Remus."

Remus studied the boy he considered the closest thing he would ever have to a son. The godchild of his former best friend; one time love, the adopted son of his other closet friend; James would be so proud of the man Harry's becoming, the son of his beloved Lily; the one who always treated him like he wasn't the odd one out…the son of a former enemy. "Harry something is bothering you so do us both a favor and tell me." Remus pulled his gaze away from his pseudo godson. "Whatever it is will be easier if you talk to someone. It doesn't have to be me. Talk to your dad, Hermione, or Draco if that works best for you. I'm certain any of them would love to hear whatever you need to say."

"No. No one would understand. It's really nothing really; just me being a bit selfish and petty when I really should get over myself and be thankful that I have a summer with family that isn't the Dursley's."

Remus frowned. "Words left unspoken often hurt the worst Harry. If something bothering you then talk to someone. Learn from everyone's mistakes Harry. Learn from mine and your fathers' or Hermione and Draco's. Not talking can be as harmful as saying something cruel."

Harry sighed and relented. "I think Sev," he sighed at once again nearly calling him by his given name instead of what he was. "I think Dad regrets me taking the potion."

Remus caught the bare movement of the kitchen door out of the corner of his eye. Someone was outside the door and had clearly heard what Harry had to say. Since there were only five people in the house and two of them where in that very room and two were occupied with one anther he was fairly certain he knew who had been on the other side or rather was still on the other side. Discreetly he tried to catch the scent of the person without Harry noticing but the scents of the five residents of Grimwald Place permeated the air in such strength that it was impossible to say if it was Severus for certain.

"Why do you say that Harry?"

"I don't know. He hasn't really said anything about it since I took the potion. It's been nearly a week and he hasn't said anything. I expected some bare comment about it from time to time but I've gotten nothing."

"So you think because he's not said anything in particular about it since the day you took the antidote that he regrets allowing you to take it or regrets brewing it so you could take it?"

Harry's eyebrows drew together in deep concentration. "Either…both….neither. That's just it, I don't know."

"Harry if there is one thing I can tell you about your father it's this, he doesn't regret things. Not this sort of thing at any rate. He doesn't regret telling you the truth or allowing you to take the potion. Don't get me wrong Severus Snape regrets plenty of things, more than a few are things to do with you and your childhood, but not for a second do I believe that he regrets allowing you to decide to look like him. He very well may regret that you had to go through such pain to achieve it. I know for certain he regrets not being able to tell you of your true parentage before now. But Harry he does not for one moment regret you opting to fully recognize you are his son." Remus drained the last of his juice before going on. "I also don't think that's what you're worried about. Nice cover but you and I both know Severus isn't an open person so I highly doubt you would take offence to him not speaking on such a private matter under his own compulsion. So cut to the heart of it Harry and tell me what's really bothering you."

Harry flustered. He had gotten used to Sirius reading him so quickly and easily but not to Remus. It always surprised him when the werewolf saw past him. "It's nothing."

"No Harry it's not."

Harry pushed back from the table and got up. "Really it's nothing." Harry fled the kitchen before Remus could continue to question him.

He made his way up to the main level, past the covered portrait of Sirius's mother, up the stairs to his room. Falling face down onto the bed he resisted the urge to scream into his pillow. It wasn't like he liked feeling this way and he certainly didn't want to share his feelings, least of all with anyone that resided within the house with him.

The summer's numerous changes didn't change the fact that he had a job to do. A job he had put off long enough. There were horcruxes to be found and they weren't finding themselves. He knew the first was destroyed for certain. The diary had been gone for several years now; destroyed by the poison in the basilisk fang deep within the Chamber of Secrets. There was the ring that had poisoned Professor Dumbledore…the ring that Harry blamed at least in part for his father having to kill his mentor though no one at all knew he felt that way and he wasn't ready to divulge it either. The locket he had gone to retrieve with the headmaster had been a fake. He had found the original already buried deep in a stash of "treasures" that Kreacher had hidden in basement that he had pilfered from the trash. Harry had turned the locket over to Remus and Kingsley the moment he had found it. He had managed to keep from telling them just what it was fairly easily. He had simply told them it felt wrong to him. Remus had said it was the darkness of the magic in the necklace and had set out straight away to destroy it. Less than a week after Harry had found the locket it was no more. Harry hadn't even asked what had been done to it. He didn't want to know. He didn't need to. All he needed to know was that the item was no more and the magic within it was gone hence to the ether.

There were still 4 more. Hufflepuff's cup he knew for certain but he had no location for it. He had hoped there might be some finial clues left by the headmaster in the memories he had left preserved but if there had it wasn't in the few he had been allowed to view.

The remaining three he had no clue to the location of or even what they were to begin with. He had some suspicions, more so after the past week's reading. Several of the books he had skimmed through had said it was possible to store pieces of the soul in living beings or creatures. Nagini seemed as likely a possibility as any if Voldemort had used something living. The only problem with this line of thinking was that if the creature died, so did the piece of the soul. At the very least Harry thought that if Voldemort had used a living host he wouldn't have kept it so near to him. It seemed like inviting destruction to him. He ruled it out as quickly as he had thought of it.

He had briefly given thought to items such as Godric's sword but discarded that after remember he felt nothing dark or malevolent about the sword at all when he had been forced to use it at the end of his second year. Something embedded with that much dark magic would feel dark. He would have known even then that something was wrong with it even if he didn't know what.

He knew for certain that Voldemort himself had to have retained one section of his soul in order to remain alive so the list went down from four to three for certain.

He had no other thoughts on possible items that could have been used. There, however, was one living host he was still questioning; himself. All the books had alluded to the process used to form a living horcrux. It wasn't a spell, not even a verbal ritual as far as he could tell. There only needed to be intent in heart and mind. How much intent or even the thought process one had to have in mind didn't seem to be clear but he knew enough to know it was possible for him to have been made into one during or after the act of killing one or both of Harry's parents. He could have possibly even accidentally been made into one if Voldemort had enough desire even with a passing thought as he had hurled the killing curse at his infant self.

It was that thought that scared him most. If he was the finial link in the seven object chain then he would have to die to kill the bastard. But that confused him greatly. If it was destined to kill him but couldn't do so without all the horcruxes destroyed first then it was impossible. A person doesn't just beat death even if he had miraculously done just that as an infant. He faced an impossible question that felt distinctly like being between a rock and a hard place.

Then there was his father. The man he had looked like less than a week. There was still residual pain as his body continued to allow the potion work removing the last vestiges of James Potter from his body's structure. But the pain was a small price to pay to have a real father, to have a family that didn't lock him under the stairs and refuse to feed him. It was a price he would willingly pay over and over again if it was what was needed to keep what he had gained. However that was not needed and he was grateful for it.

But still he had just gained a father. A father he had willingly forgiven for years of crude comments and even for his part in the Headmaster's death. A part that even Harry had to admit had been forced on his father in part by the ring and in part by Draco's mother asking for an unbreakable vow to cover Draco's arse. It was something that he knew haunted his father's every moment, waking and sleeping alike because it was something that haunted him. Over and over again he would see that night play out in his nightmares. The words that passed between the headmaster and his father now made clear he no longer saw what he thought he had. Now he saw the truth, the awful brutal truth, every night.

Now just weeks after gaining a father, he was about to lose him again. He had done as the headmaster had asked and kept the information deeply guarded. He hadn't told his father about the search or his intention not to return to school come September first knowing his father would never stand for it. There was one thing Harry knew about Severus Snape above anything else, he regarded intelligence highly. He would never allow his son to pull out at the beginning of his seventh year purely to go hunting deeply dark artifacts no matter how much good it would do to destroy them permanently.

A firm knock on the door drew his attention away from his melodramatic thoughts of parting with his father and disappointment he knew he would cause his father when he found out his son had run away in search of some elusive dark objects. "Come in," Harry called.

The door opened to reveal his father standing in his traditional heavy black robes. "Mrs. Weasley has informed me that she will be taking Ronald and Ginevra into Diagon Alley tomorrow to purchase their supplies for this year. They have invited, Draco, Hermione, and you to join them. If you would like to go that is."

"We're allowed out?"

"However would you have your items received? It's a little late to rely on owl-order don't you think?"

Harry grinned. September first was only a few days away after all. "Yeah I guess." He gave his father one last skeptical look. "We can really go? It won't be unsafe for Draco to be out?"

"It will most certainly be unsafe however as per the usual you will have a full Order escort. Lupin, Moody, Shacklebolt, and Miss Tonks will escort you to see that you're all kept safe as houses."

"I've always wondered what that term meant."

"Safe as houses?"

"Yes that one. Seriously what is that suppose to mean?"

Severus cocked an eyebrow then drew a blank. "I have absolutely no idea what it's supposed to mean. Doesn't say much for the supposed safety that it offers does it?"

Harry laughed. "Not particularly."

Severus's lips turned up at the corners in the barest hint of a smile. "As I was saying you've been invited along. Draco and Hermione have already stated they would prefer to go. I assume you do as well?"

Harry nodded after a moment's hesitation. He wouldn't need school supplies but there were things he, Ron, and Hermione would need for their quest. They were planning to rough it, camping where they could as they followed every tiny lead Harry could ever remember Dumbledore ever dropping to him. For that there would be things they would need. He would just have to make sure no one noticed he wasn't purchasing school items but instead was purchasing camping equipment.

Severus idly dusted a nonexistent dust mote away from the high dresser by the door before retreating from his son's room.

**HP SS DM HG HP SS DM HG HP SS DM HG**

August thirty-first rolled around quickly. The group of five had a quiet evening after Hermione, Draco, and Harry had completed their packing. Harry and Draco had played a rather short round of wizard's chess while Hermione looked over her summer assignments if for no other reason than to make it look like they were truly heading back to Hogwarts. Around nine that night the three had made their way upstairs to bed.

Harry pulled Hermione in his room and locked the door when Draco had disappeared in the bathroom for a shower. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," she nodded and smiled sadly. "Any thoughts on how we are going to make our grand escape?"

"We probably shouldn't apparate off the train even though we all know how. Apparating from a moving target sounds like a recipe for disaster."

"Agreed."

"We could get on and then exit a few cars down. If we exit far enough down our escorts won't see us."

"We would need to exit as near to the platform entrance as possible so we aren't seen. It would be best if we lead them to the front of the train to get on. The prefects' car is first so that won't be hard. We get on there, walk to the back of the train, exit, and dash through the barrier."

"One of us should owl Ron so he knows this."

"I will. I'll ask him to bring back Hedwig with him so she won't lose us."

Harry nodded. Just as he reached to unlock the door Hermione placed her hand over his to stop him. "Harry I think we should ask Draco to come with us," she said quietly.

"What? No."

"Harry. I thought you were over your hatred of him?"

"I am. I just don't want him with us. We can't tell him what we are looking for."

"Yes we can."

"We can't trust him not to tell Dad."

"You don't honestly believe that."

Harry sighed. "No you're right I don't. Ron would have a fit."

"Ron can kiss my bum."

"Are you asking just because you like him or because you think he could actually be useful?"

Hermione blushed slightly, the tips of her ears rosy pink, "a bit of both."

"You really think he can help?"

"Yes. If anyone should know what a dark artifact is or where someone would hide them I think he's it outside of your father that is."

"Probably," Harry said riley. "Okay. Go see if he's out of the shower and bring him back. We'll tell him. But if he tells Dad it's your entire fault."

"He won't." Hermione unlocked the bedroom door and slipped out quickly. Moments later she returned with a pajama clad Draco in tow.

"Hermione what are you doing?"

Harry shut the door and locked it once again.

Draco whipped his head around to look at Harry. "Now what are you doing?"

"Bringing you in on something." Harry shook his head unable to believe he was asking his former second worst enemy to help with the biggest secret of his life. Things just didn't get a lot stranger for him. "Can you keep a secret?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "of course I can. What sort of question is that?"

"The one that decides how much, if anything, I tell you."

"Harry," Hermione chided cutting him off effectively.

"Okay, okay." Harry cut right to the chase. "What do you know about horcruxes?"

Draco's eyes widen. "How the hell do you know about those?"

"A wise old coot told me. Now spill, what do you know?"

"Enough to know that anyone with half a brain wouldn't get within a hundred kilometers of them. Why do you want to know?"

"Because they are what are keeping Voldemort from dying completely."

Draco's eyes got large again. "No fucking way."

Harry and Hermione both nodded.

"Well that explains a lot doesn't it. Still, what's that got to do with you or me for that matter?"

"Voldemort can't be killed till all of the ones he made are destroyed. There were originally seven we believe. Himself as he would have had to have kept at least part of his soul to not die, a family ring, his diary that he kept during his years at Hogwarts as a student, a locket that belong to Salazar Slytherin himself, and a cup that belonged to Hufflepuff, as well as two others that we don't know what are. Presumably those are made of items that once belong to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

Out of the seven 3 are missing, clearly we don't know where he is, but he's the last to take care of anyway so it doesn't matter where he is right now. The locket, ring, and diary have already been destroyed. Dumbledore asked me to find the missing cup and the unknown sixth and seventh objects."

"What's this got to do with me?"

Hermione looked guilty. "We, Harry, Ron, and I, will not be returning to Hogwarts this year. We are leaving tomorrow to go find the three mixing horcruxes so they can be destroyed."

"You're what?" Draco wailed in the must ineloquent way possible.

"Draco, please be quiet. We don't want Harry's dad hearing this."

"Of course not," he scoffed. "He would never let you attempt to pull off something as stupid as this. Do you have any clue what sort of dark magic it takes to make a horcrux? This isn't kiddy stuff you are all playing with. This is deep dark magic. Just touching a horcrux that isn't yours is supposed to curse you to a half-life if not out right kill you."

"Well what else is new… me cursed, who would have thought it," Harry muttered darkly.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him but continued on. "We know. One poisoned the headmaster. It's why he insisted Harry's dad kill him. He was already dying."

"I knew as much, but I didn't know what was killing him to begin with just that he was dieing." Clarity filled his grey eyes. "That makes so much more sense now."

Harry nodded knowing exactly what Draco must be thinking. "Look we have to do this."

Draco nodded, "yeah I guess I can understand that. I won't tell anyone where you went."

Hermione coughed and elbowed Harry in the side.

Harry automatically tucked his arm in to his sore side. "Well you see Hermione and I were thinking you might like to come along and help. Clearly you know more about dark artifacts than either of us. We though you might be able to help narrow the search down."

"Weasel isn't going to like that."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Must you call him that?"

"Yes," Draco replied sharply.

She huffed. "Well I wish you wouldn't."

"If wishes were horses even beggars would ride. Now when do we get started? You said tomorrow, were you being serious?"

Hermione nodded, "we leave from the train station tomorrow."

"You have a plan?" Draco asked.

Hermione nodded. "We'll enter the train at the first car since three of us are prefects. From there we dash through the train and get back off as close to the barrier as possible so our escorts don't see us get off."

Draco nodded. "Sounds workable. Who are our escorts for tomorrow?"

"Tonks, Kingsley, Moody, and you can bet Mrs. Weasley will be there as well." 

Draco nodded again. "Are you just leaving blind or did you plan to owl them once you were gone."

"Hadn't thought about it honestly," Harry replied.

"Owl back that way they don't mount a search party. Well the Order might anyway but at least with a note they won't automatically think _he_ kidnapped us."

"He's right Harry. Otherwise they will automatically think Voldemort has us no matter what your dad would be able to tell them. Best to leave a note or owl them one so they don't."

"Works for me. 'Mione go owl Ron so he doesn't freak when he sees Draco with us."

"Yep." Hermione quickly gave Draco a peck on the cheek that made the blond flush a deep red before unlocking the door and slipping out.

"I guess I better go make sure I'm packed," he mumbled before following her out.

Harry laughed; Draco was human after all it seemed.

**HP HG RW DM HP HG RW DM**

The fire flickered brilliantly against the dark of the night. The four lay curled on blankets around it to ward off the cold chill of the night air. Harry laid the parchment down next to him. "Dad's furious."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Ya think," he scoffed.

Hermione ran her hand down Draco's arm. "Dray quit goading Harry."

"Whatever," he replied.

Ron laughed. Draco was so whipped it was funny. It reminded him a good deal of his father when his mum put him in his place to be honest. It was a thought that in itself was eerie in regards to his best friend and once enemy who were lying across the fire from him curled together on the blanket. "So what did he say?"

Harry muttered something none of them could understand.

"I'm afraid I didn't catch that mate. Care to repeat?"

"He said he was going to string us all up by our… by something painful if we weren't home 'from this farce of a stupid Gryffindoresque adventure' by Christmas. He's apparently held the Order off as long as he can with what little information we've given him. He keeps trying to get me to tell him where we are and why we are gone but you know why I can't. But they don't believe he doesn't know anything I guess. It's annoying him that he's 'strung-up either way he turns' or so he says."

Hermione laughed. "Sounds like he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's not like we have to worry. The Order would have to be able to find us to begin with to come get us and we all know they can't or we would be back by now. We all know they haven't been sitting around on their hands just waiting for us to show back up."

"They could try to force Sev to tell them whatever it is they think he knows."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Clearly they think he knows everything."

"They wouldn't force him to do anything," Ron broke in.

"Like hell they wouldn't," Draco replied.

Harry nodded his head in agreement. "I wouldn't put it past Moody to put Vertiserum in Dad's coffee in effort to find out what he knows if we stay gone much longer. He's never trusted Dad that I know of."

Hermione nodded sadly. "Hopefully we'll be done by Christmas anyway. We've already found and destroyed the cup. Finding Ravenclaw's wand was almost too easy but that's all done now. That just leaves the item of Gryffindor's. With any luck we've got a few weeks left to find it and to be back before Yule."

Harry sighed; it was time to tell them he thought he knew what the last one was. He had managed to keep that secret for almost three months. He couldn't any longer. He wanted to go home as much as the next person.

He had gotten closer to his father exchanging letters during the time they had been hunting every nook and cranny of England even though he had been forced to keep the secret of the reason for their travels to himself instead of confiding in his father. Still it was amazing what could be said with the written word that he just couldn't bring himself to say out loud. It was so much easier to be completely honest when you knew you didn't have to face the emotions of the other person while they were discovering all your hidden secrets. It was easier to face his own emotions when he didn't have to do so in front of his father.

Now some eleven weeks after he had left Grimwald place with Draco and Hermione he found he was eager to return home. The past had been cleared between the two. He honestly felt that for the first time in his life he really had a father. He had a father and he wanted to be there with him for Christmas. To do that he would have to tell his companions that the sixth horcrux could very well be him…

"Guys, I think I might actually know what the last one is," he said quietly.

All three heads snapped in his direction.

"Care to explain?" Draco asked.

Harry looked down and started picking at the dead grass next to the edge of his blanket. "I think it's me…"

Ron and Draco automatically began contesting the idea.

"Not possible," Ron commented.

"You're too goody-goody Gryffindor to be holding something that dark," Draco replied.

Hermione however didn't. She knew Harry well enough by now to know he had some reasoning behind this idea. He wouldn't just blurt something that crazy out. "Why Harry? Why do you think it's you?"

"It fits. He hadn't intended to leave me alive that night. I was supposed to be dead because he feared I was the child in the prophecy. It could have been Neville, but for whatever reason he decided it was me. He went to Godric's Hollow with the intent to leave three bodies behind. Certainly having killed three people he would have the desired deaths to make a new horcrux. It would have been at the forefront of his mind when he sent the cruse at me. We all know it takes a death and intent, no spells required to make them. I've never believed Dumbledore's theory that it was mum's love that saved me. That's just too unbelievable for even me. What if I lived because his mind was more set on having his last horcrux made of the death of my parents rather than the intent to actually kill me?"

Hermione gasped. Harry had put forth a plausible theory that made more than a bit of sense. "Oh gods Harry."

"You know I'm right. The killing curse doesn't work if your intent isn't there. If he was focused less on my death and more on the horcrux he intended to create later he may well have botched my death without intending too. He wouldn't even know I was one would he? The rebound doing what it did to him."

"Hence why he isn't worried about keeping you alive. If he didn't know he had created one out of you he wouldn't know not to kill you," Draco said with stark realization.

"Exactly," Harry replied.

Ron shook his head. "No. It's still not possible. You're not dark Harry. You've never done anything remotely considered dark."

Harry raised his eyebrow. "I haven't? What about my uncanny ability to speak and read parseltongue which only dark wizards seem to be able to do, being able to access the Chamber of Secrets is enough for most to consider me dark, or how about me attempting to cast the cruciatus on Bellatrix in the Department of Mysteries. That dark enough for ya?"

Draco eyed Harry with wide-eyed fascination. "You didn't?"

Harry nodded his head in shame. "It didn't work though."

"Pity, that twisted cow would have deserved it if it had," Draco replied darkly about his mother's sister but didn't go further.

Hermione glowered at Draco before turning back to Harry. "You are not dark Harry."

"Okay then, explain why the sorting hat wanted me in Slytherin. The very house of dark wizards, no offence Draco."

"None taken," he replied almost without thinking. Neither Ron nor Hermione spoke. Not one of them could explain it. Everyone knew those with an inner darkness were sorted into the serpent house; it's just the way it was and had been for a thousand years.

Hermione broke from her stupor first. "Well I guess then we need to figure out how to find out for certain if you are holding a piece of his soul then find a way to undo it," she said resolutely.

Harry looked up his friend sadly. "'Mione you know as well as I do that we may not be able to undo it."

"Just because we haven't tried to remove the soul piece from the other objects doesn't mean it can't be done."

"No, it just means we thought it too hard or too dangerous to try."

"Then what, you die for this?" she said loudly. Her chest heaved violently betraying the withheld fear and boiling hatred for the thought of her friend laying his life down.

"If I have to," he replied quietly.

"Harry," Ron said softly. "You can't."

"If I have to die to take him out then so be it Ron. I will do what I have to do. He has taken my life from me. My mother is dead, Sirius is dead, Professor Dumbledore is dead, and I grew up without my father in that house with my aunt and uncle because of him. I will do what I have to do to grant them justice." Harry got up and walked away from the group that sat settled around the fire. He walked into the darkness seeking peace away from their pitying looks.

Hermione broke into racking sobs as her friend for the past six and half years walked into the darkness. Ron moved over to the other side of her not even paying a passing thought to the fact that Draco was already holding her as he wrapped his arm around her shaking shoulders. "We can't let him do this," Hermione whispered against Draco's shoulder where her head lay.

"But how do we stop him?" Ron said.

The question hung thick and heavy in the air for a moment as each of the three sat huddled together. Hermione's sobs quieted as she took comfort in the two strong sets of arms wrapped tightly around her.

Draco spoke with a cracked voice. "We tell his dad."

Ron looked over Hermione's head at the blonde on the other side of her. "We can't. We swore we wouldn't."

Draco sighed. "I know. I made the same promise. Normally I wouldn't go against my word, but this calls for a different tactic. If we don't tell then Harry is going to end up dead. His father would kill us if he found out we knew and let him go out and basically let himself get killed or worse kill himself all to stop that sadistic bastard." Hermione started crying again, tears soaking the shoulder of Draco's jumper. "Look I understand if you two can't tell him but I can. I've kept my word and not told Severus where or why we were out here. I have not even considered breaking Harry's trust till now, but for this I can. I can deal with Harry hating me for breaking his trust for this. After all he's hated me longer than he's liked me," he said sadly.

Hermione sat up and shook her head. "No, if we do this, we all do it. We all take the blame. He can't hate us all forever no matter how hard he tries."

Ron nodded in agreement. "So do we try to fix it first or just tell his dad as soon as possible?"

Draco shook his head. "We only go to him as a last resort. Severus is a Slytherin. He'll understand why we had to do this on our own without bringing him into it. We research, do whatever it takes to find out for certain, then undo it. If we can't find anything or find it can't be fixed them we go to him for help."

Hermione nodded. "It's a plan."

"Yep it is," Draco replied hollowly. "It's a plan…"


End file.
